Written Answers Thursday 9 June 2005

Scottish Executive

Agri-Environment Schemes

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken to address any issues arising from the review of agri-environment payments.

Ross Finnie: Following concerns about the impact of the proposed changes to agri-environment scheme payment rates announced on 9 May, I instructed that a further review of the rates should be undertaken in consultation with stakeholders. The first meeting of the stakeholder review group will take place on 13 June.

Employment

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the economic and social indicators pertaining to Morayshire, following job losses at the RAF bases, will meet the criteria for government jobs dispersal to the area.

Tavish Scott: Moray Council, in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, have been working with the Executive to identify locations in the area that would best meet the criteria for government jobs dispersal. This partnership working will help to target areas of most social and economic need. Moray Council will have taken job losses in the area into account.

Fisheries

Eleanor Scott (Highlands and Islands) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what penalties are incurred by fish farms from which fish escape.

Lewis Macdonald: Fish farmers are expected to assist local wild fishery interests with the costs of recovery of escaped farmed fish. Failure to notify Scottish ministers of an escape incident also carries a maximum penalty of a £2,500 fine.

G8 Summit

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what companies domiciled in Scotland have successfully tendered to provide services in connection with the G8 summit at Gleneagles.

Mr Tom McCabe: The arrangements for letting contracts to provide services in connection with the G8 summit are a matter for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Health

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the timetable for constructing the new Renfrew Health Centre will be affected by the plans for NHS Argyll and Clyde.

Mr Andy Kerr: There is nothing in these plans which should delay the current timetable.

Income

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis it has carried out of the effects on the economy of a reduction in average disposable income.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive has not carried out any specific research on the effects on the economy of a reduction in average disposable income. The median weekly household income (allowing for housing costs) in Scotland has actually been rising in real terms – from £237 in 1996-97 to £306 in 2003-04.

  However, we do calculate and monitor a wide variety of economic indicators, including gross value added and gross disposable household income, which are used to monitor the past and current performance of the economy in Scotland. Further details are available at the following site:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/15572/8900.

Justice

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive to what extent responsibilities in relation to the rules governing the issue in Scotland of warrants for the recovery of personal data for the purpose of investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences cover (a) reserved and (b) devolved matters.

Colin Boyd QC: The police in Scotland have the authority to seek and execute search warrants in connection with their function to investigate crime. A warrant may be obtained authorising the search of a place or premises for a wide variety of material, including personal data, for the purposes of investigation, detection and prosecution of crime relating to reserved and devolved areas. Although criminal investigation and procedure (including procedures for obtaining warrants) are devolved, there are a number of statutory powers for the police to obtain search warrants in relation to reserved matters, for example, firearms and misuse of drugs offences.

Marine Environment

Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will report on the consultation on Developing a Strategic Framework for Scotland’s Marine Environment.

Ross Finnie: I published a summary of responses to the consultation on 30 September 2004, this was placed on the Scottish Executive website and copies were sent to Scottish Parliament Information Centre, and I intend to announce the broad elements of a marine and coastal strategy soon.

Marine Protection

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have taken place with port authorities across Scotland regarding the environmental impact of ship-to-ship oil transfers.

Lewis Macdonald: Port Authorities across Scotland require oil spill contingency plans to be approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency before ship-to-ship transfers can take place. Decisions on such proposals are for the Secretary of State for Transport in the UK Government to make.

Music Industry

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what level of financial support it has provided for the promotion of the Scottish music industry in each year since 1999 and which organisations it worked with on this matter.

Patricia Ferguson: The Scottish Executive has not earmarked specific financial support for the promotion of the Scottish music industry. Its support for the industry is provided through funding made available to its principal cultural and economic development agencies i.e. the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Enterprise and Highland and Islands Enterprise. In addition, support for the international business needs of the music industry is provided through Scottish Development International. The levels of investment and support provided by these bodies to the music industry, and the purposes for which they are provided - including promotional activities - is a matter for the bodies themselves.

NHS 24

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many non-medical staff are employed by NHS 24 as telephone operators.

Mr Andy Kerr: NHS 24 employs call handlers to answer calls and to take basic information about the patient including the reason for the call, address and telephone contact number. They will then transfer the call to either a nurse adviser, a health information adviser or, if appropriate, to the Scottish Ambulance Service.

  There are currently 300 actual and 198.5 full-time equivalent call handlers in NHS 24.

Police

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many uniformed police officers in Strathclyde were available to respond to calls from the public during the week ending on Sunday 24 April 2005.

Cathy Jamieson: Information for the whole week is not available centrally, although statistics provided by Strathclyde Police show that on Wednesday 20 April at 5am there were 337 uniformed constables undertaking response policing. The figure for Saturday 23 April at 10pm was 785.

Prison Service

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoner movements there were from (a) police custody to court, (b) prisons to court, (c) hospital to court and (d) court to court and how many other prisoner movements there were in each month of 2004 (i) in total and (ii) broken down by Sheriffdom.

Cathy Jamieson: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

  The information requested in (a)(i), (b)(i), (c)(i) and (d)(i) is published on the SPS website at:

  www.sps.gov.uk.

  The information requested in (a)(ii), (b)(ii), (c)(ii) and (d)(ii) is not available.

Public Transport

Mr Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives are available to support the development and marketing of training systems that can improve the performance of drivers of public transport vehicles in respect of fuel efficiency and passenger comfort.

Nicol Stephen: Whilst the Executive encourages public transport operators to improve the performance of their drivers in respect of fuel efficiency and passenger comfort, information on any initiatives of this nature is not centrally held.

  The Executive supports the work that the Sector Skills Council GoSkills does to improve skills and introduce more passenger-focused training.

Renewable Energy

Alasdair Morgan (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is any restriction on community councils being directly involved in negotiations with potential windfarm developers regarding the payment of community benefit by the developers.

Johann Lamont: Procedures for establishing community councils are set out in the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. There is nothing in these acts to prevent community councils from being directly involved in negotiations with developers. However, the constitution and rules under which each community council operates are a matter for the relevant local authority to determine.

Road Accidents

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many road traffic accidents there were on the A71 in (a) 2002, (b) 2003 and (c) 2004 in each local authority area and how many fatalities and serious injuries there were in each case.

Nicol Stephen: Data about injury road accidents are collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the STATS 19 statistical report form. These returns cover only road accidents in which one or more people were injured: they do not cover damage only accidents.

  The following table gives the numbers of road accidents which were identified in the STATS 19 returns as occurring on the A71 in 2002 and 2003, and the associated fatalities and serious casualties. The information is broken down by local authority area. I will write to the member providing the statistics for 2004 which will not be available until Key 2004 Road Accident Statistics has been published on Monday 13 June.

  It should be noted that the statistics given below are based upon the data which are held in the central statistical database and which were collected by the police at the time of the accident and subsequently reported to the Executive. They may differ from any figures which the local authorities would provide now, because they do not take account of any subsequent changes or corrections that local authorities may have made to the statistical information, for use at local level, about the location of each accident, based upon their knowledge of the roads and areas concerned.

  Injury road accidents occurring on the A71, and the associated numbers of fatalities and seriously-injured casualties, as reported in the STATS 19 statistical returns.

  

Local Authority
Year
Injury Road Accidents
Fatalities
Seriously-Injured Casualties


Edinburgh
2002
37
0
4


2003
53
1
5


West Lothian
2002
28
1
3


2003
27
2
6


North Lanarkshire
2002
10
0
0


2003
13
0
2


South Lanarkshire
2002
26
1
7


2003
24
0
8


East Ayrshire
2002
23
0
6


2003
28
1
4


North Ayrshire
2002
6
0
5


2003
4
0
0

Roads

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has ever commissioned a Route Action Plan study for any road which is not a trunk road.

Nicol Stephen: No. All Route Action Plans carried out by the Executive have been on the trunk road network.

Suicide

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) men and (b) women committed suicide in each of the last five years, broken down into persons (i) under 18 and (ii) 18 and over.

Tavish Scott: The following table presents the latest available information. It combines deaths from intentional self-harm with deaths from events of undetermined intent, as the majority of the latter are likely to have been suicides.

  Deaths from Intentional Self-Harm and Events of Undetermined Intent, Scotland

  1999-2003

  

Sex and Age
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003


(a) Males
 


(i) under 18
17
24
13
14
8


(ii) 18 and over
646
650
633
662
570


(b) Females
 


(i) under 18
7
12
6
12
12


(ii) 18 and over
204
192
235
211
204

Water Services

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to the second supplementary question to question S2O-6969 by Lewis Macdonald on 2 June 2005, how it defines strategic network costs and local network costs in relation to the costs of upgrading and expansion.

Lewis Macdonald: As I said in my answer of 2 June, this information was covered by my statement to Parliament on 9 January 2005, and it was detailed in the accompanying documents.

  The information defining strategic network costs is given in footnote 11 of Investing In Water Services: Objectives for 2006-2014, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 35491).

  Information defining local network costs is given in paragraphs 45 to 49 of The Principles To Be Applied In Charging For Public Water And Sewerage Services In Scotland 2006-2010, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 35492).